How the Dietary Guidelines define a healthy eating pattern

Nutritionists tell us that the best diet is a balanced diet. Rather than one-size-fits-all, the best approach is a plan that you can stick with to help ensure that you get the proper nutrients to your body, while also making sure you feel full all day long! Let's take a look at how dietary guidelines around the globe can impact your eating habits.

A healthy U.S.-style eating pattern. Consider this the baseline healthy eating pattern. It includes:

• a variety of vegetables from all of the subgroups — dark green, red, and orange; legumes (beans, lentils, and peas); starchy (potatoes, sweet potatoes, winter squash)
• fruits, especially whole fruits (as opposed to fruit juice or fruit leathers)
• grains, at least half of which are whole grains
• dairy (milk, yogurt, cheese) or fortified soy beverages
• a variety of protein foods, including seafood, lean meats and poultry, eggs, soy foods (edamame, tofu, tempeh, soy beverages), nuts, and seeds, plus legumes (beans, lentils, and peas), which may be considered part of the protein group as well as the vegetable group
• oils containing polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats.

A healthy Mediterranean-style eating pattern. There is no single Mediterranean diet today, as it varies from country to country, but multiple studies have shown a Mediterranean style eating pattern is associated with good health. All share certain features, including a bounty of vegetables and fruits, whole grains, legumes, fish, nuts, seeds, and olive oil. This pattern contains more fruits and seafood and less dairy than the healthy U.S.-style eating pattern, which explains why it is slightly lower in calcium and vitamin D.

A healthy vegetarian eating pattern. Compared with the healthy U.S.-style eating pattern, the healthy vegetarian eating pattern includes more legumes (beans, lentils, and peas), soy products, nuts, seeds, and whole grains. It contains no meats, poultry, or seafood, but is identical to the healthy U.S.-style eating pattern in the amounts of all other food groups. This pattern is slightly higher in calcium and dietary fiber and lower in vitamin D, because it relies more heavily on foods like beans and tofu as sources of protein.

No matter which of these eating patterns you follow, you should be taking in a lot of vegetables and fruits. Most of us are used to thinking of the target as "five a day" for the two groups combined. But newer government recommendations urge everyone to aim for seven to 13 daily servings.

To learn more about different diets from the experts at Harvard Medical School, check out The Diet Review, a Special Health Report from Harvard Medical School.

Image: © Jordi Salas| GettyImages